A liberal group is attacking the Tea Party movement with a new project called “F*CK Tea” to discredit the solutions offered by conservative activists. It is a three-tiered campaign that includes selling t-shirts and coffee mugs with the derogatory slogan on it.
The group’s founder, Erica Payne, said the effort is intentionally edgy.
“When you look at their world view, somebody has to say f—k that. That’s not the right direction to go at,” she said in an interview.
The effort, Payne said, is meant to make people “stop a minute, and really look at the ideas” of the Tea Parties. While she said she sympathizes with what has motivated many conservative activists, “I just think their solutions are fundamentally are wrong.”
The project has been in the works for several weeks, she said, and the group first gave the “F*CK Tea” merchandise out at the liberal Netroots Nation conference in Las Vegas. They started promoting the project with the media this week.
The effort is being spearheaded by the liberal group Agenda Project, whose mission, according to its website, is “to build a powerful, intelligent, well-connected political movement capable of identifying and advancing rational, effective ideas in the public debate and in so doing ensure our country’s enduring success.” The site includes “Tea Party Facts” like 57 percent of the Tea Party think George W. Bush was a good president, 40 percent think Sarah Palin would also be a good president and 59 percent like Fox News host Glenn Beck.
Asked if the group’s “edgy” name could turn people off, Payne acknowledged that there is “a very reasonable chance.” But she argued that people who know her background know that this is a “very serious effort.”
One Tea Party activist dismissed the effort to The Daily Caller as “sad.”
“This is just one more clear display of left-wing intolerance and bigotry,” said Brendan Steinhauser, an organizer at FreedomWorks. “It’s really sad, and just proves that leftists are miserable, unhappy, angry people.”
Nonetheless, Steinhauser did have some advice for the start-up site.
“Being a capitalist, I hope that they create or save a lot of jobs with their new t-shirts,” Steinhauser said. “Since President Obama has failed to create any private sector jobs, maybe this group can help him out a bit before the midterm elections.”